The only consistent thing with this Devils team is their consistent ability to find new (and old) ways to disappoint
The great thing about sports is that you can watch any live sporting event and not know what is going to happen.
The worst thing about sports is watching your team and knowing what is going to happen, even if you don’t know quite how they’re going to get to that point.
On the surface, those two sentences contradict each other, but I found myself watching another disappointing loss on home ice, this time to the Vancouver Canucks, and the only thing I could think about was “Yep, I’ve seen this one before.”
Of course these Devils would immediately give up a goal in the third period after taking a 2-1 lead. Seen that before.
Of course these Devils would give up a goal in the final minute of regulation to cost themselves a critical point at a time when points are at a premium. Just like they did in Dallas earlier this month. Nope, I’m not a fan of this rerun.
Of course these Devils would lose in a shootout, as they’re roughly 1-99 in their last 100 games that go to a shootout. That might only be a slight exaggeration, but let’s be real, we all knew once the game got to that point that that was how it was going to end.
To quote the great philosopher…..(checks notes)…..Elmo from Sesame Street, the letter of the day for the Devils is once again the letter “L”.
Of course these Devils would suffer another gut-wrenching loss in a season filled with them. Frankly, these Devils have a season’s worth of them over the last month between allowing 4 unanswered goals to lose to Calgary and a Thomas Harley game winner with 5 seconds left in Dallas. Add the Canucks to that list.
Of course they’d find a way to take yet another L.
It’s exhausting. It’s tiring. It’s frustrating. It’s aggravating.
Obviously, every season has its ebbs and flows, but most “playoff teams” don’t have a three month stretch where they’re 13-15-4, which is what the Devils have been since Christmas Day.
Even without Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Jonas Siegenthaler, the Devils should be better than what they’ve shown for three months now. Except that’s the thing. They’re not.
Jesper Bratt is having a career year. Nico Hischier hit the 30 goal mark for the second time in his career. Timo Meier has been heating up over the last month. They weren’t missing those key players for that entire stretch. The goaltending has been good for most of the season, this last stretch by Markstrom notwithstanding.
The individual pieces, particularly the higher end pieces that good teams would otherwise rely on, have not been bad. Yet, the collective group seems to find new ways to lose. Again, and again, and again.
Part of why this team is exhausting is that it seems like its always something new with each loss. Offense clicked one night but the goalie gave up 5 and you lose. Defense didn’t show up and you lose. You get goalie’d and lose. You blow a multi-goal lead at home and you lose. You don’t score at all and you lose. You lose and you lose and you lose some more because that’s the only thing you’re consistently good at.
Every time this team has had any modicum of success the last few years, they find a way to go right back to being a letdown, which is part of the reason why this team hasn’t won four in a row for almost two years now.
Have a lead in the third period? Give it right back to the other team because why keep attacking when you can dig in, park the bus, and try to hold on for dear life?
Have a great season in 2022-23 and win a playoff round? Spend the entire summer taking a victory lap with Tom Fitzgerald appearing on every hockey podcast out there, and then spend the following season playing like you can just flip the switch at any point and go on a run, only to never do it.
Have a great start in 2024-25? Take another victory lap after the Rangers win in December, then spend the next three months playing and acting like you’ve accomplished something when you’ve actually accomplished nothing. Play like you know you can just turn it on at any point, except you never do. Again.
Noticing a trend here?
Cruise control might be on, but the car is veering off of the road. The Devils might want to have both hands on the wheel there before they get stuck in a ditch.
The worst part is that it really feels like the Devils should be beyond this. The line that we are fed during rebuilds is that you have to learn from losing before you can win. So losing is what the Devils did, and they were very good at it. I’d argue that they still are.
The problem is that at some point, you do have to start winning. The “the Devils are a young team” excuse doesn’t really fly when the general manager has brought in as many veteran players and “win now” players as the Devils did. The team has enough veteran leaders and experienced players who “know how to play the right way” where the young and dumb excuse doesn’t really fly.
And that’s what really chaps me. Isn’t the whole point of bringing in “win now” players to win. Like, right now. Or in the Devils case, any of the games they’ve let slip through their fingers this season? The Canucks game, the Flames game, the game in Dallas, any of the games on the California road trip, the San Jose game that was in Newark, the first two Philadelphia games. Wouldn’t you feel better about where the Devils are if they just found a way to win half of those games? Or heck, even a third of those games?
I get that winning games in this league is hard. I get that you’ve changed the coach. You overhauled the goaltending and defense. You’ve turned the roster over. But you’re still not winning. Either you win, or you don’t. Moral victories aren’t good enough anymore.
The Devils are still making dumb mistakes like two puck over the glass penalties against Calgary in a span of two minutes, one of which led to a PPG against and ultimately contributed to the loss. You see things like that and you just shake your head because even some of the worst teams in recent Devils history didn’t do something like that.
You would read this and think the Devils had a 21-41-9 record like tonight’s opponent in the Chicago Blackhawks. They don’t. The Devils are 37-28-7 and sit in a playoff spot as they have all season. There are a litany of teams who would gladly trade positions with the Devils in two seconds if they could.
Yet, 37-28-7 just doesn’t feel good enough. And it shouldn’t because its not. When you’re a win now team, you should be a little bit better than that at this stage of the season. As frustrating as these losses are, the team should be held to a higher standard than what we have seen. So I don’t blame fans for being frustrated and I don’t really care anymore if any players feelings get hurt when Sheldon Keefe calls out players for needing to play better. It’s their job to figure this out. Figure it out!
I still generally disagree with the Devils and their tepid approach when it came to the trade deadline. Cynics might point to these last few months and say that’s justification for not doing more to help the NHL team. I’d point to the investments already made in the group and the collective ages of the Devils best players and point out that’s why they should double down. But I think in the end, we can agree to disagree on that point.
Where I will agree is that it does feel like this season is circling the drain and they’re closing in on that 1000th papercut to finally put themselves out of their misery. It does feel like the Devils are heading for a first round exit against Carolina, assuming they don’t have one of the greatest ever regular season chokejobs in them with 10 games to go. The Devils have been trending in this direction for some time, and they have yet to show that they can consistently play a winning brand of hockey. They haven’t done so for three months. Time is running out for this group to flip the script.
Maybe when this season does come to a merciful end though and I don’t have to watch this exhausting team for the next six months, I can finally get some rest. Lord knows I could use some after letting this team put me through the ringer for yet another disappointing season.